ABC

Jimmy Kimmel began his monologue on Wednesday night by reading a lengthy excerpt from that afternoon’s “unprecedented” New York Times op-ed from an anonymous senior official who says they are part of the “resistance” within the Trump administration.

“That is something,” Kimmel said after reading the passage. “I mean, that is really remarkable. And I have to say, I’m surprised by how good a writer Ivanka is.”

All afternoon, people had been speculating about the identity of the editorial’s author, but Kimmel zeroed in on the most compelling theory, which centers around the word “lodestar” to describe the late Sen. John McCain.

“That’s not a common word, ‘lodestar.’ Not a lot of people use that word,” Kimmel said. “But you know who does use that word? This guy.” With that, he cut to montage of Vice President Mike Pence using the word again and again in various speeches over the past couple of years.

“Wouldn’t that be something if it was Mike Pence?” Kimmel asked. “Trump just announced that the Space Force's first mission is to locate and destroy the lodestar, whatever that may be. And this is going to drive Trump absolutely nuts. Can you imagine what it must be like to have a job at which almost everyone who works for you thinks you’re a complete idiot? I can. And I’ll tell you something, it’s no fun at all.”

Kimmel noted that the op-ed arrived at nearly the exact same moment as Bob Woodward’s new book, Fear: Trump in the White House, which the president has been deriding as “total fiction.”

“He’s doing a really good job of plugging this book he thinks is total fiction,” Kimmel said. After reading the tweet below, the host added, “That would be like, for instance, someone knowingly and falsely claiming the first African-American president was born in Kenya and was not an American, you know?”